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It’s a known saying that a man doesn’t realize the importance of the people in his life until he loses them. The good old ‘You don’t know you love her ‘till you let her go ’. Adonis knows this, and he’s realized the significance of the people in his life. He loved his mom, his father, his unit members, his friends, and even his sisters. He also realized the impact they have on his life, and that his relationships with them are precious. Adonis isn’t some monster, some Frankenstein’s creation with no empathy or regard about human relationships. He’s an average 17 year old boy.
However, what he has been slow in is, undoubtedly, romance. Romantic feelings were an undiscovered experience for him, and in between unit practice and concerts, there certainly was no room or motivation to step into that world.
Adonis had found people attractive, though. The shiny hair and pretty faces of girls had always drawn him in, even if his sisters had instilled a sort of fear of women inside of him. It wasn’t really a fear anyway, it was more of an anxiety, that he’d love the woman more than the woman loved or cared about him. That makes him unable to explore the world of romance, an intimidating wall set for the sake of his sanity.
One of the people Adonis had found attractive, almost enough to make him tear down that wall of his, is Arashi Narukami.
Arashi is beautiful, objectively and subjectively, as a model and his teammate in the Track and Field team. Her physical beauty was definitely something, with her glittering eyes and lean body, but her inner beauty and strength shone in every smile, or giggle that came out of her.
But Adonis was scared, scared of exploring the unsure path of liking someone. Scared of exploring his feelings for her, scared of ruining what he had with her because of his feelings for her. Scared of coming across as too blunt, scared of saying the wrong thing. Scared of tearing down the wall he built in his heart.
So he never talks about it. He keeps stealing looks at her in the locker room (there was only one locker room in Yumenosaki, and he feels bad for her), when she lifts up her shirt, kinda shy, covering her chest, and quickly putting the track club shirt over her head. He keeps looking at her long legs during practice, gleaming from the sun overhead, the stretch of her muscles contracting and extending, contracting and extending…
But he snaps out of it everytime, thinking about meat, schoolwork, idol festivals, or anything that took his mind off of her. And it seemed to work, too. Even if he had several slip-ups, like calling Arashi a beautiful woman on her birthday (the blush on her cheeks as she hit him in embarrassment still sneaks into his mind from time to time), he’s kept his feelings under wraps pretty efficiently.
But now it’s the last day of track practice, after all the other members took their leave and he’s watching the girl pick up hurdles, sweat dripping off her collarbones, onto the track. Adonis knows that Arashi hates, hates getting sweaty, and that he should probably help her pick the hurdles up. But he’s so transfixed in her lean figure, and how the rays of the sunset settle on the skin of her legs, the sweat glimmering against her slightly tanned skin. Her face is hidden by her sandy hair, but Adonis can see her pink lips peek through the curtain of hair.
“Adonis-chan?” she calls, snapping him out of his haze.
He snaps up quickly, nodding.
“Could you help me pick up these hurdles?”, she asks, standing up and putting her hand on her hip, “It’s painfully hot outside today, and you know how much I hate getting sweaty.” She wipes some sweat off her brow.
“Of course.” Adonis answers, automatically, and walks to her in an almost mechanical fashion, trying not to notice the gleam of her violet eyes, and the slight smile on her lips.
He picks up the rest of the hurdles for her, and she moves to sit on the rubber floor, mumbling about how her foundation is ruined, and how she thanks god for the existence of semi-permanent lip tints.
Once he finishes, he carries the hurdles to the storage room, setting them in their appropriate space, ignoring the foul smell of the used equipment in the room. He emerges from the storage room, realizing that the sunset is further into its process, the red and orange hues becoming more intense in the afternoon sky.
Arashi is still sitting in that same spot, except with her bag, and pocket mirror in hand. She’s looking at herself, patting her skin delicately. Adonis looks down at his feet, walking closer to the girl.
“Oh Adonis!” she exclaims, “Can you believe it’s our last day of practice?” She sighs dramatically, causing Adonis to chuckle and look up at her.
Arashi is now standing. She’s looking at him directly, violet eyes sparkling like gems, reflecting the orange hues of the sky behind her. Adonis regrets looking up. She’s still sweating a bit, but it seems like she wiped most of the drops away earlier. Her lips are still pink (maybe from the lip tint she was talking about), and a smile lingers in them, white teeth peeking out from them. Her hair is neater than it was before, but it’s fanning with the slight breeze of the upcoming evening.
They stand there for what feels like hours (but in reality it’s a few minutes), and Adonis notices the faint freckles on her cheeks, covered slightly with foundation, but still visible from where he’s standing. Her eyelashes are long, and coated with dark mascara, and he can see the remains of what seems to be glitter eyeshadow.
Her breath is fanning over him, warm, and he thinks he smells a hint of vanilla in it. I wonder what she’s thinking right now , he ponders. And with that thought, he looks away abruptly. He steps back a bit, and looks up to see Arashi with a confused expression on her pretty face.
He clears his throat, moving in the direction of the locker room, flustered. He wants to run away, he doesn’t want to seem creepy, like a monster, to her. He feels every negative emotion coursing through his brain, and his heart beating a thousand beats a second.
A strong grip on his forearm stops him. The hands on him are soft, yet the hold on his hand is firm, unmoving, stable.
Adonis turns to look at Arashi behind him. She’s frowning, delicate features scrunched up in slight wrinkles. She looks adorable.
“Adonis-chan!”, she exclaims, still frowning, “Are you really going to let a maiden walk home in this heat?”
The boy shakes his head. “Are you sure, Narukami?”, he asks, uncertain of what Arashi was planning.
“Of course!” she answers, a smirk dancing on her lips, “Aaaaand, I also have a surprise for youuu~”
The girl smiles at him, ignoring the other’s confused face. She takes his wrist and drags him closer to her, and starts to walk in the direction of the nearest park. He follows, wrist still captive under Arashi’s iron grip.The orange light is fading, and so is her smirk, slowly being replaced by a sort of grimace, which Adonis had never seen before. He gulps. They keep walking.
She loosens her grip on his wrist, and clutches her bag tightly. The charms on the bag jingle lightly, and he thinks he sees a Hello Kitty charm amidst the movement. He can’t bring himself to look at her face now, that the sunset was almost complete, the last orange rays filtering in between the darkening night. The streetlights are turning on, pale light beginning to peek through the evening. Her grip is merely a touch now, but he feels her shaking. He doesn’t want to see her uncomfortable, but he can’t get any words out.
Alarms go off in Adonis’s head, telling him to speak up, to ask what they were doing, and try to get her to stop shaking as soon as possible. He takes a deep breath and attempts to raise his voice.
“Narukami,” he croaks, throat burning and clogging, “What are we doing.”
He hears the girl clear her throat, and he’s forced to look at her.
Arashi looks distressed, a sigh escaping her throat. “We’re going to the park”, she answers, violet eyes staring at him, shaking a bit. Adonis frowns.
“And what are we doing in the park?”
“Nothing, just, y’know, second year congregation?”
“Narukami, we’ll be third years in a week”
“Yeah,” she sighs again, “I know.”
She looks at him again, gaze wavering as she takes delicate steps on the sidewalk. She’s still clutching her bag, and the charms are still jingling. Her hand isn’t on his wrist anymore, but it’s shyly brushing along his hand. He feels the long, cool fingers skim his calloused ones.
“It’s just that”, she hesitates, as if trying to push the words out of her mouth. She looks down at the pavement, fiddling with her earrings. The other can hear the faint clanging of Arashi’s fingernails on the metal, rubbing nervously as the streetlights bounce light to her piercings.
“It’s just that… what, Narukami.” Adonis rasps, heavy footsteps hitting the pavement slowly.
She doesn’t answer.
The street is quiet, and all he hears are their footsteps, and Arashi’s incessant tapping on her piercings. They keep walking until they reach the intersection to the park, watching cars go by until the signal, and walked silently into the lonely park.
Students who cut class apparently went here a lot, as Adonis spotted some cigarette butts littered on the gravel. Arashi was still walking close to him, her gaze downcast. It was amazing how much her mood changed from when the sun just started to set to when the moonlight was bouncing off her sandy hair.
Careful to not startle her, the boy grasps her hand as gently as he could, and led her to the nearest bench, dusting the leaves off it, before letting her sit down.
She looks pretty even like this, so far apart from her usual, bubbly and bright self. Adonis wonders if this side of her only comes out at night.
They sit for a couple of minutes, Arashi not messing with her piercings anymore, instead just drumming her manicured nails on the old park bench. Adonis watches her, too emotionally and physically drained to be embarrassed, and notices how the pale moonlight reflects on her features.
Adonis is busy staring at her reddening ears until he sees her move, her frame twisting around to dig in her bag. The charms clink against each other again, and the boy hears a zipper being opened and closed.
When she turns around, Arashi is holding two meatbuns in her hand, plastic covering crinkling against her palms. She looks at him nervously, her eyes wavering again, and her cute canine tooth digging against the plush of her lips, nibbling at the tinted flesh.
It’s then and there, when the damn bursts. It’s then, under the obscured radiance of the moon, that he realizes his own feelings. It’s then, with Arashi looking at him so skittishly, the remainder of the glitter eyeshadow on her lids sparkling in the dull light, that the wall tears itself down. It’s then, watching the girl’s crossed legs squirm with nerves against the park bench, that he completely and utterly falls in love with Arashi Narukami.
A gentle explosion sets off in his brain, filled with silent fireworks, choirs that whisper, and small heartbeats that rattle his ribcage. He unconsciously smiles, eyes still locked with hers.
And she’s still looking at him, with an unsure look on her face, and all Adonis wants to do is take her into her arms, and spin her around like the maidens he knows she wishes to be. But he can’t, not yet.
He takes one of the meatbuns off her hand, softly. The plastic crinkles again, but Adonis can barely hear it over the beating of his heart.
“Thank you Narukami,” he says, voice trembling a bit. “I appreciate you buying me this delicious snack.” He digs in, and Arashi does the same, opening the package carefully.
“Y-you’re welcome, Adonis-chan”, she stutters. “I wanted to thank you for being in the track club with me. Even if I didn’t really …. put the best of my effort in.”
The boy nods, chewing his meatbun. He’s looking at her directly, still. Arashi’s ears are still red as she chews her meatbun slowly.
“And also,” she starts, swallowing her bite of the meatbun. “To answer your question earlier,” she struggles, and begins to lift up her hand to her ear, ready to twiddle with her piercings again.
But this time, Adonis stops her, grabbing her hand just as it was about to reach her ear.
“You can tell me,” he reassures, the adrenaline from his earlier realization coursing through his veins.
Arashi’s pink lips form into an o , looking at the boy’s hand gripping hers, almost frozen.
“I-i”, she stutters again, almost choking on the words. Her hand trembles again, but Adonis gives it a gentle squeeze.
She closes her eyes, and opens them again, irises catching the glare of the light.
“I’m scared”, she breathes out, gripping Adonis’s hand tight, just as she did earlier today. However, Adonis can now recognize the pain in that grip, and he loosens his hold on it, opting to run stroke Arashi’s hand with his thumbs, almost coaxing her to speak again.
The girl’s eyes are watery, and she takes a deep breath.
“I’m scared of the future, of what will happen to me and my career in my final year of high school.”
“Mhm”
“And I’m terrified of being perceived as something I’m not. I get it everyday, but being perceived as that on a nationwide scale haunts me.”
“I see.”
“And I feel like I’m alone… I’m not alone, I know that obviously. I mean, I have Knights, I have Tetora, I have Mika…. I have you ….”
“Of course you do, Narukami.”
“But I have always wanted someone… to love me. To support me, to hold me close. And I know I can’t get that with Kunugi-sensei, it’s unfair, and illegal anyway. But I…. I can’t help it!”
The last sentence echoes through the empty park, and Arashi starts to tear up.
“I-i don’t want to cry…” she sniffles, and tears flow down her cheeks. They somehow glint in the dark lighting.
Adonis can’t stand to see her like this. Such a charming, lovely and innocent woman shouldn’t be sobbing in a park. But the thought of her crying alone, without him, without anyone besides her scares him.
So it’s only natural that he pulls her into a hug, her smooth skin touching his. She’s stiff at first, but she slowly relaxes into the boy’s arms, her hands touching his shoulders tenderly. The girl buries her face in his chest. She’s still crying (and also still holding her meatbun), but Adonis feels like this is much better than her sobbing alone. It’s the least he could do for the woman he’s in … love with.
They stay like that for a while, Arashi murmuring unrecognizable words into his chest, and the moon’s beams shine on them like a faint spotlight.
Arashi’s sobs eventually calm down. She slowly pulls away from the tight hug, looking up at him. She has streak marks from her mascara on her cheeks, but Adonis still finds her unbelievably stunning. She shoots him a watery smile.
“Let me get my handkerchief real quick, Adonis-chan.”
Adonis hums in acknowledgment.
She digs it out of her bag rather quickly, zipping and unzipping it, and turns to look at the boy again.
“Thank you for that, Adonis-chan”, she croaks, gratefulness dripping from her tired voice. She’s wiping the mascara streaks carefully, and Adonis wonders how she knows their location without her mirror.
“It’s no problem, Narukami,” he assures her. “I feel like you really needed it.”
She giggles softly. “Oh god. I guess I did, huh?!”
The boy chuckles, hand coming up to rub the back of his neck.
“Oh how I wish I had a crush on you instead Adonis-chan!” she sighs dramatically, flopping against the armrest of the bench. “You’re so much nicer than Kunugi sensei~~~”
Adonis ignores the tight feeling in his chest. He’d deal with that later.
He laughs breathily, “I don’t know Narukami, maybe I’ll be the prince you’ve always dreamed of”, he jokes.
The girl stares at him with a seemingly shocked expression before giggling again. Adonis is overjoyed to see her smiling again.
“Oooh, Adonis-chan’s picked up some tricks from his Undead senpais, huh!”, she teases, and Adonis laughs again.
A sound cuts through their laughter, which strangely sounds like a song that plays often on the radio.
“Sorry, Adonis-chan I have to take this!” she excuses herself, shifting her body away from the boy.
He watches her lips move, and her head nodding, until she hangs up.
“It’s my manager”, she groans, turning towards him. “She got worried about me staying out late, and she used my phone to track me. She’s right outside the park.” Arashi rolls her eyes, and Adonis chuckles.
“Thank you for the meatbuns, Narukami. They were very tasty.” he says, watching her gather her stuff.
“Oh it was no problem!” she answers, folding her frilly handkerchief, setting it inside her bag, and then zipping it closed. “I should be thanking you!”
“Narukami its o-”
“No, seriously. Thank you”, she says, stopping her packing and looking at him dead in the eye.
“It’s no problem, Narukami” he replies.
Arashi smiles. She’s done packing her stuff up, but she still has the wrapper from her meatbun.
“Have a great summer, future prince,” she says, standing up from the bench. “We’ll see each other next year, having the same class and all!”
“And throw this away from me, please~~”, she adds, winking at him and stuff thing the wrapper in Adonis’s clammy palm.
With that, she presses a quick peck on Adonis’s cheek.
Before he can register the kiss, Arashi is gone.
However, the blush on the boy’s cheeks as he walks to his dormitory in a daze isn’t. And the heat of the kiss against his cheek is still present as he wakes up the next morning.